Ancient Near East, Sumer, Third Dynasty of Ur, ca. 2080 to 2030 BCE. A clay tablet of a rectangular form with rounded sides, smooth faces, and a planar top and bottom. The tablet bears seventeen uneven lines of cuneiform text formed by impressing a sharpened reed or stick into the still-wet clay shortly before undergoing the kiln-firing process. The subject of this tablet is a record of rations given to a number of workers by listing the quantities of barley and oil allotted to each individual and naming the overseers managing the process. Cuneiform was generally a pictographic style of writing in its infancy, though it became a more abstract style of letter-based script around the 3rd millennium BCE. Size: 1.9" W x 2.25" H (4.8 cm x 5.7 cm).
This tablet and three others hammered for GBP 1,500 ($1,979) at Bonhams, London, Knightsbridge Antiquities Auction (May 8, 2013, lot 145 [top-right]): https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20667/lot/145/?category=grid&length=560&page=1
Provenance: private Houston, Texas, USA collection; ex-Bonhams, London, Knightsbridge Antiquities Auction (May 8, 2013, part of lot 145); ex-Joseph Klein collection, formed in New York, New York, USA between 1941 and 1980, thence by descent
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#132900
Condition
Surface wear and abrasions commensurate with age as expected, very minor nicks to corners, sides, and top and bottom faces, with fading to some cuneiform letters, otherwise intact and very good. Nice earthen deposits throughout.